This invention relates to new and useful processes of mass manufacturing a plurality of security cards, to new and useful processes for manufacturing security card substrates from which a plurality of security cards may be further manufactured, and to security cards and security card substrates from which a plurality of security cards may be further manufactured.
As used herein and in the appended claims, the term "security card" is used to mean credit cards and debit cards. Credit cards being those cards typically issued to a cardholder and used by the cardholder to purchase goods the cost of which is credited against the cardholder's account. Debit cards being those cards typically purchased by a cardholder and used by the cardholder to pay for goods the cost of which is debited against the cardholder's account or used by the cardholder to pay taxes, such as a sales tax, with the amount of the tax paid being debited against the cardholder's account.
The term "security card substrate from which a plurality of security cards may be further manufactured" as used herein and in the appended claims is used to mean a new and useful manufacture or article of manufacture as provided for in 35 U.S.C. 101 and is used to mean a substrate including a plurality of partially manufactured security cards which substrate may be sold to a plurality of third parties for further manufacture into a completed security cards. Different third parties may take the same substrate and further manufacture it into a completed security card bearing indicia peculiar to each third party, for example, third parties desiring to complete manufacture into VISA.RTM. cards or MASTERCARDS.RTM. may take the same security card substrate and imprint thereon information particular to the VISA.RTM.card or particular to the MASTERCARD.RTM. and may further provide thereon indicia such as logos and the like particular to each different individual credit card company.
As is known to those skilled in the security card art, particularly the credit card art, credit cards are provided with visual image producing devices which receive and reflect light to produce a visual image perceptible to the human eye in ordinary light such as sunlight, incandescent light and fluorescent light. Such visual image producing devices may be a hologram, two or three dimensional, or a diffraction grating such as a spiral diffraction grating or a composite diffraction grating made of a plurality of diffraction gratings of different designs or portions of diffraction gratings arranged in predetermined patterns. Such visual image devices, particularly holograms, are made of extremely thin material whereby the removal of the visual image device from the security card virtually assures destruction of the visual image device thereby substantially eliminating the unauthorized copying or counterfeiting of the visual image device; similarly for diffraction gratings. As is further known, the thin material visual image producing devices are adhered to the card with an adhesive producing a strong bond whereby breaking of the bond to remove the visual image producing device further assures its destruction.
It will be further understood that the security card substrates of the present invention, from which a plurality of security cards may be further manufactured, enhance the efficiency of manufacturing security cards, provide the flexibility of permitting different card companies to use the same security card substrate to complete the manufacture of cards specific or particular to each different card company, and reduce the manufacturing costs of security cards.